Written by Asish Sridhar
Edited by Bipasha Bhattacharyya
Illustrated by Chirag Taneja
Bubble Trouble
His eyes open with an intense look, as he comes upon a realization
The ocean floor is dark, quiet and freezing.
He opens his eyes and finds the others blindfolded and sleeping. He feels troubled looking at the hundreds of bodies around him all covered in bubbles.
They seem to be in a dream.
He seems to be deeply immersed under the water, with no other animal or plant around. The floor is hard and jagged and feels sharp pokes at the base of his feet. He wears a pair of black swim briefs; his bare chest calming with the trembling cold waves of water. The world around him is engaged in a dark blue hue. “Far across the distance", he sees another person, who swims upwards.
Beside him, a mother, a look at her resting son and weeping before, she ties the soaked blindfold around her eyes as he clutches onto the still body of her daughter.
He turns right to see another man standing, also blindfolded in the bubble. He wears a dozen medals and with his chest flaring, he laughs loudly before falling back asleep.
To his back was a man frantically gorging on chocolates from a crushed heart-shaped box.
Overwhelmed at the sight and clueless to the surroundings he closes his eyes and runs.
After a few minutes, he is tired. He opens his eyes to see if anything had changed but to his surprise,
he had not moved an inch. Curious, he jogged with his eyes open and noticed that there was a force keeping him running in circles.
He could not feel it but the ocean was sweeping him into a circular motion.
He thought for a while and figured out that he had to try to swim up to the top.
First his arms pushed while his legs kicked but eventually, he figured out the tick. Now with his body under his whim, he swims faster upwards and suddenly finds himself surrounded by
humans. One in a blue suit, another in scuba gear, one in a kimono while another wearing a one-piece. Each person wears something different. Most of them have stopped and given up. A few wear their blindfolds and swim back into their bubbles. A few swim up.
He wonders how long it's been; how much more does he have to swim.
Before he knows it his bare chest is covered with hair. As he swims further upwards, he tries a couple of flips and twists and with the help of some tips he takes the fun out of it.
The small, coloured bubbles sparkling under and above him, behind him and all around him. Of his time, his memories of family and friends, of his ups and downs, his first time wearing his brand new red ice skates and the sharp sound of the stick hitting the puck, the despair and trivia he felt when the Dr.Hiroshi Nakajima delivered the news about his torn ACL. He reminisced about playing ice hockey with his father. He had lost the love of his life.
He chuckled because he had been breathing this whole time underwater.
He found his thoughts clear
Free from all his fears
The dependence on his peers
Nobody could see his tears,
In his mind a new learning is seared
Whether he liked it or not the curtain would draw near.
Whether he felt good or not, whether he knew or not, whether he tried or not,
He could see the bubbles from his cries rise up.
Now he was out of the illusion and started to dream
Although awoken from his sleep
To find himself in the dark, dangerous deep.
He walks afraid, he walks alert,
he walks excited, he understands his limits, his power,
an uncertain but exciting world to explore and discover.
His body plops out of the water to reveal a new sight.
He chuckles as he sees another bubble, long lost, which he had sacrificed;
The pen that he had left behind
He takes the pen reaching out to the seemingly endless water above him.
He's free to write the story he wants.
No, he was always free,
And had already started writing a new story.
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